Secret Valentine's Project For The Classroom

Need a fun way to celebrate Valentine's Day? Read this instructive article to find out how!

Kids love holidays, especially when it means that they'll get candy or gifts! They just love to celebrate and be happy by nature. So, if you work or volunteer in a classroom environment, you can plan a Secret Valentine's Project for your students to celebrate February 14th!

You should start this project at least a week or two before Valentine's Day so you and your kids will have plenty of time to get everything done.

The first thing to do is to have your students decorate the classroom. This can be done with either a combination of store bought items and decorations that the boys and girls make. Or, the decorations can be all handmade by the kids. If you have a large classroom, then this will be an easy task.

You can have your students draw hearts, Cupids with bows and arrows, and other items that symbolize Valentine's Day. Then, have them color their drawings with crayons or magic markers.

Finally, they can cut them out with scissors and hang them up in the classroom.

After the decorations are hung up, give each student a brown paper lunch bag. Tell the boys and girls to decorate their bags with pictures and designs for the holiday. They can again use crayons or magic markers. The kids can also use glue, construction paper, and scissors to draw and cut out decorations for their brown paper bags too.

Instruct the kids to write their names on the front of their bags too.

Then, have the boys and girls hang each bag on the front of the student's desk with transparent tape. Or, hang them anywhere else in the classroom where they can be easily reached by the kids.

The next thing to do is to provide each one of your students with a blank paper heart. Have everyone print his or her name on a heart. Then, place the girls' names in a large, fairly deep plastic bowl. Use another large plastic bowl to put the boys' names in.

Stir the paper hearts up with your hand. As you're doing that, explain to your students that they will be picking a heart out of the bowl. The name that's printed on the heart will be their secret valentine!

Explain to the kids that they are not to tell anyone whose name they have, because, it's a secret! They will find out who their secret valentines are on February 14th!

Start with the girls and allow each one to pick a heart out of the boys' names. Then, stir the other bowl of hearts up and repeat the process with the boys.

Now, also explain to your students that they will be making Valentine's Day cards to place in the bags of the kids they have chosen. You can have them make a few cards, bring in small candies, make necklaces out of cinnamon candy, et cetera. After they make their gifts for their valentines, have them write the names of the recipient on them. Then, have them place the items in a box on your desk.

So that no one sees any of the boys and girls placing cards and gifts into their bag, you'll have to do this in between classes.

In the meantime, to help celebrate Valentine's Day, you can read a book to the class. Some examples that they might enjoy are: Clifford's First Valentine's Day (Scholastic, Inc.) by Norman Bridwell, Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink (William Morrow & Company, Inc.) by Diane deGroat, or the Story of Valentine's Day (Ideals Publications) by Nancy J. Skarmeas.

Finally, when the holiday arrives, allow each student to open their bags and retrieve their gifts!